My uncle David Ish-Horowicz, who has died of a brain tumor aged 75, was a molecular biologist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), now Cancer Research UK (CRUK), from the late 1970s.
He was one of the pioneers in the application of molecular biology to developmental genetics. His research career has focused on unraveling the intricate mechanisms that control how embryos turn into complex organisms. He used both drosophila (fruit fly) and vertebrate models to identify and analyze the molecular and genetic pathways that establish and regulate spatial organization within embryos.
His groundbreaking studies led to major advances in the understanding of many distinct molecular processes that pattern a developing animal, work that paved the way for advances in developmental biology.
Born in Manchesterto Moshe Ish-Horowicz, a businessman, and his wife, Hava (née Berman), David attended grammar school in Manchester, before going to Cambridge where, after a natural sciences degree, a PhD at the MRC -laboratory for molecular biology completed.
He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in the Department of Cell Biology, at the Biozentrum Centre, before returning to the UK, first to the ICRF’s Mill Hill Laboratories, then to the ICRF Developmental Biology unit, Oxford, and finally at the ICRF/CRUK London Research Institute laboratories at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. He received the 1997 Gulbenkian Science Prize and the 2007 Waddington Medal of the British Society of Developmental Biology. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 2002.
David was passionate about science and sharing knowledge and ideas, which he did with generosity and enthusiasm. He was widely read, a skill appreciated by colleagues and friends with whom he would share the latest developments, and delighted in explaining new discoveries. He never really retired.
When his laboratory closed in 2013, he was adopted by collaborators and institutions, dividing his time between Oxford’s department of biochemistry, and UCL’s laboratory for molecular cell biology, where he held honorary professorships, with Fridays spent in the Francis Crick Institute.
He continued to nurture young scientists and put them at ease to encourage them. His legacy is not only one of scientific advancement, but also his collaborative approach and his mentoring of younger generations.
He lived between his Oxford home and a London flat, pursuing his love of cycling in both cities and enjoying entertaining friends at dinners in both, with his wife Ros Diamond, an architect, whom he married in 1988. got married
It was while working in Switzerland that he developed a taste for espresso and dark chocolate and fostered his passions for good food and skiing. A lover of music, he took up playing the piano seriously again in recent years, took lessons from a professional to hone his skills, and meticulously worked on pieces by Bach, Chopin and Schumann.
He is survived by Ros, his four sisters, Ruth, Judith, Miriam and Naomi, and 11 nieces and nephews.
